Sunday, July 01, 2012

Story/Gag Workshop at TAAFI (TORONTO) on Sunday July 8 2012

The folks at the Toronto animation festival came up with a unique workshop idea and asked me to demonstrate the way I write the stories for my cartoons.

As most people who've read the blog know, I don't use scripts; I use the classic cartoon method of writing the details of the story with drawings on storyboards. My writers are all cartoonists and animators. Of course, not all cartoonists have story ability but the ones who do write the best cartoons because they understand what works when you have to draw every frame of the story.

Mike Kerr, one of my funniest story partners will be joining me on stage to conduct a "gag session".

AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION

We'll want to involve some of the artists in the audience and have you suggest gags and draw them out on storyboards which we will pin up and review and add to.

Their may be around 80 people in the audience, so I wouldn't be able to personally spend time withe every artist, so I'm trying to figure out a way in advance to maybe see some of your work and select a few funny cartoonists.

I will do another post with some links to storyboards I've done and character designs and descriptions.

CAN YOU DRAW FUNNY? APPLY NOW

In the meantime if you'd like to participate in the event, you might get used to drawing some of my characters. (They don't have to be perfectly on model, but the drawings should feel like the characters and express their personalities).

The characters I am thinking of using are Slab N Ernie, Bobby Bigloaf, maybe George Liquor, Sody Pop and The Heartaches.

Maybe we can get 2 or 3 cartoonist units together and each unit can storyboard a section of a different story.

If you wanna do some sketches and upload them to a blog or web site to show, put an (active) link in the comments to this post. If I think you have story potential, I may select you and give you a heads up on a rough story idea to start sketching up. Or if you already are familiar with my characters, you can suggest your own story or gag idea. - REMEMBER - DO IT WITH DRAWINGS, NOT JUST TEXT.

You and yours create cartoons the way Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko created comics in the early days of Marvel Comics. But with those guys, Stan Lee got to sneak up behind them and put his name on everything!!!!

I know this isn't storyboards/gags per say but here is an animation that I did that was very inspired by you and your work. I couldn't find any other way to get in contact with you. I'd love to hear back from you and let me know what you think. My email is greydon.luterbach@gmail.com

Ha! I was reading the Slab n Ernie bit, and was thinking how the gags would play out almost the exact same way you explained them. By the time I read them, it was like deja vu. I would love to edit for you!

p.s. Just picked up "Oh Joy!" (Shitbirds) just cause you did the jacket. I love any and all of your art. I also have the world's largest Ren & Stimpy collection (no joke) and bought it all 2nd hand so asshat backstabbers wouldn't get any loot.